Goichi Suda

Goichi Suda sits for an interview on August 2, 2013 to promote Killer Is Dead.

Goichi Suda (須田剛一) is a Japanese writer, video game director and the chief executive officer of Grasshopper Manufacture. Beginning his career as a scenario writer for Human Entertainment, Suda departed five years later and formed Grasshopper in Suginami, Japan. He is popularly known as Suda51, a pun on his given name Goichi, where go means five in Japanese and ichi means one. Suda's roles in the games made at his studio have varied over the years, however he has not limited his work only to Grasshopper titles. During his career, Suda has also lent his talents to other video games such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Liberation Maiden SIN and Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day.

Goichi Suda was born in the city of Nagano, in the Nagano Prefecture of Japan on January 2, 1968. Much of his early life has not been discussed publicly. In the early 1990s, Suda worked as a funeral director, though the stench disagreed with him and he continued to search for job openings elsewhere. One of the advertisements Suda responded to was for a position at video game studio Human Entertainment, where work was beginning on Super Fire Prowrestling III: Final Bout. Suda was convinced his knowledge and passion for wrestling would guarantee him the job, however his excitement weakened after weeks passed without a reply. Suda did eventually receive a response from Human, who hired him as a scenario writer largely because they needed more designers with wrestling knowledge. Suda promptly left his job as a funeral director.

Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. opened its doors on March 30, 1998 in Suginami, Japan. Suda was joined at first by only three other designers forming Grasshopper's programming, art and sound departments. Severely restrained by a lack of manpower and resources, Grasshopper combatted this by developing a game engine which would make their text adventure stand out from traditional ones. Suda also wrote a story connecting it with his last game with Human, Moonlight Syndrome. Securing a publisher in ASCII Entertainment, Grasshopper released its first video game, The Silver, on October 8, 1999.

The Silver carried over some trademarks from the Syndrome series, as well as establishing several new ones which continue to echo through the games Grasshopper releases today. The Silver itself received spiritual sequels in the form of Flower, Sun, and Rain and killer7, with all three games collectively forming a body of work dubbed by players as Kill the Past. killer7 brought significant attention to Grasshopper and Suda in 2005, as its affiliation with Capcom and Shinji Mikami garnered extensive media coverage including making the cover story for the April 2005 issue of Nintendo Power. While not commercially successful, the game exposed audiences outside Japan to Grasshopper for the first time, and is believed by many to be Suda's magnum opus.

Franz Kafka is among Suda's favorite authors. His favorite film is Paris, Texas, in which the lead character Travis Henderson is believed to have inspired the names of two Suda characters – Travis Bell and Travis Touchdown. His favorite video game is said to be Another World.

Suda's passion for wrestling was instrumental in his hiring at Human Entertainment, where he began his career in video games. Suda somewhat famously donned a luchador mask at killer7 promotional events and could also be seen wearing one in the No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle trailer. Wrestling plays various roles in several of Suda's works, particularly his Super Fire Prowrestling games and No More Heroes.